Mike Vizard

No end user relishes engaging with the average IT department. From their perspective, navigating IT support processes is often little more than a journey down the proverbial rabbit hole. Of course, truth be told, the average IT person isn’t exactly cut out for delivering support with a smile.

For both those reasons, a lot of organizations have been trying to deploy self-service IT support. End users are happier, for the most part, when they can solve their own problems without having to engage IT personnel directly. IT people, meanwhile, are not only more productive when not dealing with support calls, it would be none too soon if they never actually spoke an end user again.

According to Crystal Miceli, a senior director of product marketing for CA Technologies, in order for IT organizations to deliver IT as a service, it has to be accomplished via a streamlined user interface that makes people want to engage. Many end users today, says Miceli, are more than comfortable with the idea of solving their own issues as long as the process is not overly complex.

In fact, these days the truth is that it’s more likely to be the quality of the experience provided by the internal IT organization, rather than the total cost of providing that service, that will ultimately determine whether an organization decides to outsource IT or not.